Scans_Daily

Bringing the crack since December 2003

Catwoman #4

We learn a little bit more about Selina's past and are introduced to more people in her life. At best it appears as though the Frank Miller prostitute origin has been retconned out of continuity. So I guess one point for Winick?

Heh, I don't know about anyone else, but I thought Selina looked a bit like Sailor Star Fighter in those last few panels.

Judd: Catwoman is brilliant, damaged, sophisticated, crass, and a born survivor who also seems at times to have a death wish. The complexities leap her.

Guillem: I like lonely characters so I can focus on the body language, facial expressions, how he or she interacts with the background.

2. What is your favourite thing about your part in the New 52?

Guillem: It will be long remembered and I'm incredibly happy I got the chance to be a part of it. I feel I'm adding something to the character, putting a bit of my own vision of Catwoman in the book.

Judd: The fresh stories we get to tell, how we get to hit the ground running, and how we can welcome new readers. All the stories are open to EVERYONE.

3. Can you tease the villains they will be fighting in upcoming issues?

Judd: Well, Catwoman's a criminal, so her adversaries cross a few spectrums. She'll have a run-in with an ugly mobster named BONE, have a budding romance with a member of the Gotham Police Department, and OH YEAH--there's Batman!

Guillem: See Judd's answer. I just want some of the villains we have in the book to stay for a long time because they're great. I love Bone.

4. What new things are you doing with these characters?

Judd: We are getting back to the core of Selina Kyle. She is, first and foremost, a thief. She steals not to survive, but because she digs it.

5. How will you shock readers?

Guillem: Every issue I've drawn to date has a very strong surprise or cliffhanger at the end. I'm always shocked when I read Judd's scripts.

Judd: As of Catwoman #1, pardon the pun, but the cat's out of the bag on one of our MAJOR surprises--the Catwoman/Batman romance.

6. What is your favourite page in the first few issues and why?

Judd: Am I allowed to say ALL of them? If I HAVE to choose, it's page 3 of the first issue. Catwoman crashing out her window in a hail of gunfire, half in her costume, whip in one hand, cat carrier in the other. This says EVERYTHING about our book and Catwoman. Dangerous, sexy, and unexpected.

Guillem: Issue #1, page1. All started there. I hope it takes a long time to finish.

"it appears as though the Frank Miller prostitute origin has been retconned out of continuity"

For one thing, I don't see anything that directly contradicts with Year One right now.

For another, she wasn't a prostitute in Year One. Look at her first appearance in that story when Bruce is in disguise in the East End--her demeanor, her clothing, the way she's addressing her client and the way he's replying--she's clearly a dominatrix. While that's in the realm of sex work, that's not the same as a prostitute.

For another, she wasn't a prostitute in Year One. Look at her first appearance in that story when Bruce is in disguise in the East End--her demeanor, her clothing, the way she's addressing her client and the way he's replying--she's clearly a dominatrix. While that's in the realm of sex work, that's not the same as a prostitute.What?

Yeah fortunately her past as a prostitute was better handled by later writers who used it to build Selina's character. I especially liked that Ed Brubaker brought her back to the East End and used her past there as motivation for serving as 'protector' to that part of Gotham.

The big difference, from what I understand, is that dominatrices (I think that's the plural for that) typically don't exchange in intercourse with their client. It's literally just whipping, beating, and humiliating the client for their pleasure. Again, it's typically grouped in with sex work, but it is of a different vein.

I am frankly very ill at ease by the fact so many people use this (which may or may not be true of Femdom sex worker, I assume it might depends from people to peopel, really) to distantiate their vision of Selina from the vision they have of a prostitute. It's like they think that having intercourse for money is lowly and degrading in a way that D/s for money isn't - which is both a rather narrow vision of what sex is, and derogatory to sex workers who do have intercourse.

That definitely wasn't my intent to say one is more "lowly" than the other--my feeling is that the only thing that makes it degrading comes from the efforts of our lawmakers to make it illegal and crack down on it. I just think there's enough differences to make that distinction.

While it's icky when people try to "defend" the origin by making out like being a dominatrix is somehow "better" than other kinds of sex work, I think that it does make more sense for the character (more sense, not lots of sense.)

Headcanon says that Selina just likes shiny things and thrills. I like to have characters without so much Freudian baggage.

Earth-2 works for me well. She's a socialite (so in the same circles as Bruce Wayne, with the parallels there) in an abusive relation, leaves him and breaks into his vault to steal his valuable jewels as she goes, and finds she's gained a taste for the experience.

Or the Batman Returns one, where she's a loyal corporate type, finds a nasty secret from her boss, is betrayed and almost killed by him, and something snaps and she embraces a mentality almost 180 from her old, being an untethered and free like her cats.

To be honest, I don't think her past was explored all that much in the pre-Crisis continuity. On Earth-2 she was originally a house wife who left her abusive husband and became a jewel thief after she found the success of stealing back her jewellery from her husband's vault very thrilling. Prior to that she fabricated the story about being flight attendent who became Catwoman due to amnesia in order to start her life over. I actually posted that story a while back, which is also one of my favourites from the pre-Crisis continuity.

Hadn't thought of that, though it makes sense. I think it would be interesting if she were a cop, but not a very good one--like, maybe Selina figures it out right away, and is kinda friends with her anyway.

I should stop envisioning how I want this series to play out, because that's just setting my self up for disappointment.

Founded by girl geeks and members of the slash fandom, scans_daily strives to provide an atmosphere which is LGBTQ-friendly, anti-racist, anti-ableist, woman-friendly and otherwise discrimination and harassment free.

Bottom line: If slash, feminism or anti-oppressive practice makes you react negatively, scans_daily is probably not for you.